Introducing Monday Afternoon Quick Fix! A brand new series that will run every Monday afternoon to showcase the best of Chicago music news, views and stories from around the interwebs and blogosphere that we might have missed.

• Democratic Cheryle Jackson, who’s running for U.S. Senate, has tapped Lupe Fiasco to perform at a fundraiser for the candidate Thursday, January 28 at the Shrine Chicago.
• Jennifer Hudson will join Usher Celine Dion,  Carrie Underwood, and Smokey Robinson as part of a 3-D tribute to the late Michael Jackson at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, January 31.

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Many of Chicago’s top artists are contributing to Haiti earthquake relief efforts. Here’s a rundown of what some of them are doing to benefit the people of Haiti in this time of need.

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The air is getting chilly, the leaves on trees are changing – yes autumn has come to Chicago.  That of course means only one thing: It’s time to starting making plans for which concert to go to on New Year’s Eve. Several acts have announced plans to hosts shows in Chicago for the last night of the decade.

UPDATE: Chicagoist reports that The Jesus Lizard will headline The Metro’s NYE show. The show is 18+, and tickets go on sale this Saturday at noon. Additionally, the Jesus Lizard dates on November 27 & 28 at the Metro are sold out.

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Umphrey’s McGee released details of a new interactive fan experience – the Stew Art (S²) Series – a completely improvisational set of performances that has the band taking cues from its audience.

The group calls the improv section of its live shows  “Jimmy Stewart” in reference to a late night jam session in the Jimmy Stewart Ballroom at the Pittsburgh Renaissance Hotel where they had performed earlier in the evening at a wedding  in the fall of 2001.

The Stew Art Series will take place independent of their regularly scheduled shows, occurring during the day prior to a show or on a rare day off while on the road. Each will feature a Q&A session with the band and each attendee will receive a custom laminate ticket as well as a copy of the performance in hand immediately following the show. Here’s how they describe how the “experiments” will work:

Using several communication mediums which could range from text messaging to prewritten cue cards to chalk boards you will kick out ideas, descriptive words, phrases, pop culture references . . . pretty much whatever comes to mind. These will be presented to the band who will compose jams on the fly based around those ideas, and ideas will be added to, changed, and deleted as the event progresses.

It remains to be seen how well this turns out.  It could be an awesome experience and a new step in fan/band interaction that really meshes the interplay of the two. Or it could be a train wreck of cacophony and aimless noise with the band being guided in every which way but a good one. Stay tuned as more details emerge and we see how this experiment plays out.

OHMphrey, the largely improvised debut release from the side project made up of three of the members of Umphrey’s McGee (guitarist Jake Cinninger, keyboardist Joel Cummins, and drummer Kris Myers) and former Megadeth guitarist and current leader of OHM Chris Poland, dropped today.

OHMphrey also includes OHM’s Robertino Pagliari on bass who along with Poland formed the fusion/progressive outfit in 1997. The self titled album released by Magna Carta mixes jazz fusion, rock, prog and metal and a samples of the eight tracks can be streamed for free here and on their MySpace page.

The Umphrey’s half of the group is playing in another side project Kick the McGee (featuring Chris Clemente from Kick the Cat on bass) tomorrow night at Martyr’s (3855 N. Lincoln Ave.). The full band will play Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Summer Camp Festival this weekend down in Chillicothe, IL.